South Indian films crush Bollywood at box office

Clearly, the regional cinema revival had continued into April of this year, just before the second wave of covid, and had restarted as early as August with more titles having hit theaters since. Strokes like Master, Vakeel Saab, Love story and the last Akhanda and Pushpa: The Rise – Part 1 ensured the return of the public to cinemas in the south.

Hindi cinema, on the other hand, only experienced a resurgence after Diwali in November with Akshay Kumar’s film. Sooryavanshi. He has yet to see a second success although hopes rest on the sports drama ’83 with Ranveer Singh.

So far, the Hindi film industry has only recorded collections of about ??450 crore even as theaters wait for the release of ’83 and Jersey before the end of the year.

South Indian film revenues could be closer to ??1,000 crore, according to estimates from two trade experts.

Additionally, the major entertainment conversations on Twitter this year have also involved South Indian films and actors. Tamil actor Vijay’s tweet revealing the first look of his upcoming film The beast was the most loved and retweeted tweet in entertainment. Vijay’s action flick Master, which was the most tweeted film about South India in 2020, was finally released after much delay in 2021 and was the most tweeted film this year, when it comes to hashtags.

This was followed by the action flick by Tamil actor Ajith Valimai slated for 2022, Vijay’s Beast, Suriya’s caste struggle legal drama Jai Bhim broadcast on Amazon Prime Video and the Telugu film by Pawan Kalyan Vakeel Saab which was released in theaters in April.

“The southern market has recovered faster and has grown for almost three months while the recovery for Hindi started as late as Diwali. Even now, conditions are not on par with those before covid. States like Maharashtra are still operating at 50% of their capacity while the southern territories are 100% occupied, ”said Girish Johar, film producer, trade and exhibition expert.

Except Sooryavanshi, there was no real Bollywood stunt after Wave 2. While Yash Raj Films’ Bunty Aur Babli 2 completely crashed with collections of ??12.50 crore, Ayushmann Khurrana-starrer Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui could not find a draw among the female and family audience and ended up at ??22.61 crores.

Importantly, these recent Hindi-language films have found no success and barely registered an opening in southern India, which has the highest attendance at theaters in the country, the business analyst said. independent Sreedhar Pillai. On the other hand, while the Telugu original is already ringing cash registers, Allu Arjun’s Hindi version of Pushpa also made Rs. 16 crore at last count.

Although Maharashtra had allowed cinemas to reopen, films like The lower end of the bell already done ??15 to 20 crore more at best, according to Bihar-based independent exhibitor Vishek Chauhan, who said all Bollywood offers of late have been either disappointments or colossal flops.

“Bollywood is losing more and more market share and the tangent is shifting towards big budget, visual effects-focused Hollywood and Southern cinema. Young people no longer find Hindi films cool enough and there is no “connection” with older stars, with the possible exception of Akshay Kumar and Salman Khan. Young stars, on the other hand, don’t generate ticket sales, ”Chauhan said. “Hollywood vibrates with the top of the audience and the south eats away at the bottom. So Bollywood is losing a lot of shares, ”he said. added.